On with Kara Swisher

Latest Episodes:

Peering into the Future with Tony Fadell Jan 05, 2023

Show notes

Less screen time: it’s on everyone’s list of new year’s resolutions — or, at least, it’s on ours! Today, Kara and Nayeema discuss the addictiveness of tech and social media, before Kara dives into a conversation about the present and future of tech with a person who’s been around Silicon Valley for decades: engineer and designer Tony Fadell. The “father of the iPod,” as he’s known, helped bring the famous 5,000 songs to your pocket before helping design the iPhone, co-founding Nest ( selling it to Google for $3.2 billion) and writing the bestselling book, “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.” These days, he is bullish on climate tech and excited about the newest product he's designed: Stax, a crypto hard wallet.

Kara and Tony trade notes on Silicon Valley, including why Apple should think beyond four-wheel cars, why Google struggles to innovate (coddling employees is part of it) and how the next Fortune 500 companies will be the ones who help solve climate change. Oh, and they talk about the different types of assholes — and whether you need to be an one in order to build something great.

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Love, Life & Other Advice from Kara and Nayeema Dec 29, 2022

Show notes

For our final episode of 2022, Kara and Nayeema unabashedly dish out advice and answer questions you sent in (and some you didn’t). They tackle dating woes, difficult family dynamics, salary negotiations, choosing between career and travel and even give … fashion tips? In addition to listener questions, we hear from past guests and friends, including Kathy Griffin, John King, Rick Wilson, Mike Birbiglia and Walt Mossberg.

Stay tuned till the end to hear Kara’s ultimate escape plan — which involves an island and a donut shop.

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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The Legacy of Steve Jobs Dec 26, 2022

Show notes

We're sharing Kara’s September 2022 conversation with Tim Cook, Sir Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs on the life and legacy of Steve Jobs. It’s one of Kara’s favorite conversations of the year, and one in which she cried (though she denies it).

Kara handpicked this trio to join her for her final Code interview. Cook, the CEO of Apple, worked with Jobs for decades and succeeded him as CEO. Ive, now co-founder of the creative collective LoveFrom, collaborated with Jobs on the design many of Apple’s game-changing products, like the iPod and the iPhone. And Powell Jobs, the founder and president of Emerson Collective, was married to Jobs for 20 years. In this wide-ranging conversation, they cover design, ethics and, of course, Kara’s favorite topic: death.

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Casey Newton, Kara & Nayeema Talk Tech Dec 22, 2022

Show notes

From the high speed train wreck that is Twitter 2.0, to the extradition of a fallen crypto kingpin and AI that can rewrite your dating profile, there’s a lot happening in tech right now. Nayeema Raza moderates a conversation with Kara Swisher and Casey Newton, the founder and editor of Platformer. They break down the biggest stories of 2022 and look at what lies ahead in 2023. Will there be less billionaire grift? Is this the year that AI takes your job? And, "OK Google," could this be the year that Bing gets its revenge?

This conversation was taped in front of a live audience at Manny’s in San Francisco.

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Piers Morgan On Murdoch, Musk and – yes – Meghan Markle Dec 19, 2022

Show notes

What’s more toxic: Tabloids or Twitter? Piers Morgan may know – the outsized personality has been an outsized influence in both spheres for decades, since his start as show business editor at Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun.

In this interview, Morgan discusses his rise – and stumbles – and the return to Murdochland, where he now hosts the Fox Nation show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” We tackle characters with whom Morgan has beefed — from Donald Trump to Meghan Markle. And Kara asks Morgan, who is famous for stirring up debate, what part of him is authentic and what’s performance. “I think that when expressing my strongly held opinions, there's always a bit of theater to it.”

You can find Kara Swisher and Nayeema Raza on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Fox News, Dominion — oh, and Donald Trump Dec 15, 2022

Show notes

What’s one way to stop misinformation? It might just be a giant defamation lawsuit. This week, media titan Rupert Murdoch was deposed in a $1.6 billion suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News and Fox Corporation. They allege Fox knowingly and maliciously aired baseless claims accusing Dominion of an election fraud conspiracy. Somewhat surprisingly, instead of settling out of court, Fox News is denying the allegations, and the case is scheduled to go to trial in April. To unpack the lawsuit and the revelations it has brought (and will continue to bring) to light, we turned to New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters, who says this could be “one of the most consequential First Amendment cases in a generation.”

He breaks down the case, the souring Murdoch-Trump alliance and Fox News’s future. Plus, we review Ron DeSantis’s chances in 2024 (outlook: not good) and Ben Shapiro and Elon Musk’s chances of one day besting Murdoch (outlook: somewhat better).

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Aging, Death and Other Uplifting Topics with Mike Birbiglia Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

Aging, parenting by mortality and dying alone or kinless: these are just some of the uplifting topics Kara and Nayeema tackle today before our interview with Mike Birbiglia. The comedian and writer is deep in his latest Broadway show, “The Old Man and the Pool,” which doesn’t shy away from such heavy topics either. Birbiglia and Kara discuss mortality, parenthood, their last words and finding comedy in all of life — even the sad bits.

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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A Bad Week for Donald Trump? … And Potentially for Gay Marriage? Dec 08, 2022

Show notes

It’s been a bad week for Donald Trump. Herschel Walker lost the Georgia Senate runoff and a New York jury found the Trump Organization guilty of criminal tax fraud. But the former President (and current presidential candidate) still has something to look forward to: a busy conservative Supreme Court which has three Trump-appointed justices. Today, Kara and Nayeema discuss two of the cases the court heard this week. One focuses on a North Carolina election law case that could upend democratic protections in states like Florida, Arizona and Michigan. The other is about free speech and gay marriage and is close to Kara’s heart.

In the interview, Kara speaks to a panel of experts about this very case: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, a free speech case brought by a web designer who doesn’t want to be penalized for not providing wedding websites for same-sex couples. She explores the impact this case could have with Louise Melling, Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU and Director of its Ruth Bader Ginsburg Center for Liberty; Dale Carpenter, the Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law, and Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University; and Sasha Issenberg, Washington correspondent for The Monocle and author of “The Engagement," about the battle for same sex marriage in America.

Stay tuned until the very end when Kara rants about how a onesie became a symbol of something far more important.

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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The Man Behind "Sex and the City" and "Emily in Paris" Dec 05, 2022

Show notes

Love them or hate them, chances are that you’ve watched at least one Darren Star series. Kara once called them the “hottest trash on TV” but for over 30 years she has devoured shows that Star has created and executive produced, including “Sex and the City,” “Beverly Hills 90210” “Melrose Place,” “Uncoupled” and — most recently — the Netflix hit “Emily in Paris.” In this conversation, Kara and Darren discuss how HBO paved the way for risqué television, how streaming has eclipsed network televisions and how Star got inside the mind of the straight girl.

Before the interview, Nayeema and Kara discuss why TV — trash or not — is being recycled into nostalgia programming. And they dive into the dark days media is facing right now after layoffs at CNN, hiring freezes around the news industry and shutterings of small media outlets pave the way for a “bad winter.”

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Why Twitter’s Former Safety Chief Left Elon Musk Dec 01, 2022

Show notes

Elon Musk's Twitter is a spectacle, and the drama and meaning of the last six months is perhaps best unpacked by Yoel Roth. The company’s former head of trust and safety survived the early flood of firings and resignations — in fact, he was ascendant, in the early days of this new Twitter, and he became the face Musk presented to advertisers. Kara asks Roth whether he felt “used” by Musk and why — having been embraced by Elon’s inner circle — he ultimately decided to abandon Elon.

Before the interview, Kara and Nayeema weigh in on Elon Musk’s seeming needling of Tim Cook, and they discuss whether Apple has too much power. Stay tuned until the end for Kara’s rant on this very topic.

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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